That's it. Cut the rest of them. They stink. I don't want to hear excuses.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by phlysac

I heard that Sylvester Stallone wrote The Expendables with The Alex in mind. He had to keep it realistic though and split The Alex's abilities into multiple characters. Stallone thought that critics would pan it for being too far-fetched if he just had one character effing everyone up.

So guys, hate to be that guy, but Bud Adams spoke out today. Doesn't sound like he's pleased at all with the coaching. We've all speculated that the coordinators could be on the chopping block. But is Munchak as well? Bud is circling the drain of eternity. He's impatient and is a bit of a loose cannon. Wouldn't be surprised if we're looking for a new coach after this season.

Bud is...well Bud, and an old Bud. As the years go, he's got to get impatient for that SB ring. I like Munch, but he's got to get better coordinators, that's a huge part of a coach's job. I'm hoping he stays and finds better coordinators, but nothing should surprise with Bud already speaking up.

But you also have to wonder about the new GM. I like this year's draft class (still early I know), and I guess it's a bit early to say about his job performance. But again, Bud has spoke, heads may be a rollin soon.

As far as players go :
1. We knew how bad Griffin could be...he apparently thrives on defensive pressure.
2. I hope McCarthy was not a one year wonder. He does look slowed still so I have hope.
3. I hope Klug wasn't a one year wonder. Maybe Marks is more valuable for the future? Not that I would bank on either being big time players in the future, thinking more along the lines of DT depth here.
4. Our starting DE's are not gonna be star pass rushers. We are still looking.
5. I want to see Markelle Martin. I want to have hope he can battle for a starting S spot next year. With this hope though, I realize I may under value S.
6. Ayers should have been pass rushing more. We lowly fans knew this.
7. I'm too mad at the O to even acknowledge their existence right now.

I had a suspicion a while back that Ayers wasn't being used in rush packages earlier in the season because they couldn't trust any other linebacker to fill his role at the time. McCarthy was hurt, Brown was still green (lol), and Spoon had declined. They had to use Ayers in a traditional 3-down linebacker role...no one else could do the job. Now that McCarthy is (somewhat) back, and Brown has taken over full time on the weakside AND as a nickel 'backer, you are seeing them move Ayers around a lot more. His # of snaps per game has actually dropped the past 2 weeks, but he's been more effective, and it's freed him up to do things other than cover. Sacks in consecutive weeks, and I think he could finish the season with 7+ if we keep using him like this. He's probably our best defensive player right now.

You are right Pit, they had their reasons for using Ayers the way they did recently (now last year is different, he should have been used to rush the passer more), but I think they made the wrong moves personnel wise. They have to find a way to emphasize their strengths.

I'd rather see whoever in at nickle LB as long as Ayers is rushing. Throw Brown out there, rookie LB's have started from day 1 many times in this league. Shaw has always looked pretty good to me when he's played D, I actually wanted to see him out there over Spoon when I saw Spoon was getting the snaps. But even letting Spoon get out there while Ayers was rushing would be better than the route they went I believe. Pass rush is just too important. Maybe they had confidence in the guys who were rushing? Well I guess just another failure in judgement there if that were the case. Wimbly and Morgan won't be really good rushers unfortunately.

But this isn't the only way I think the personnel on D has been mismanaged, a few other things have erked me. I assume all of that stuff falls on Grey, which is one reason I think the current talent has not reached it's peak performance (not to say we don't need more talent though). I'm hopeful we have several keepers on D with guys being used to their strengths. And these guys are young, so it makes me hopeful just a few improvements could make huge strides for the D.

And I agree Ayers is our defensive MVP right now. Brown is looking better than I expected. I think McCarthy is still playing gimpy which must be hurting his performance, but I think he'll still be very solid when healthy. I hope we have 3 starting LB's to keep for awhile in those guys.

Hard to say, but if I had to guess, I'd say Hasselbeck for another week. It actually came out that Locker fractured his shoulder against the Texans, which is different from the initial prognosis. I think they have been targeting after the bye week for his return all along, but that's just me guessing. Our bye is next week after we play Miami this week.

If they are a bit worried about his health, they should wait till after the bye week. Looks like the put McCarthy back in too soon, and he reaggravated his injury. I want Locker as close too 100% as possible to evaluate for the rest of the season.

Well that's a shame. I liked Martin, but I guess it's better to have him 100% for next season. Of course without seeing him get on the field on Sundays, the true test of his value won't be seen, leaving or S situation more clouded for next year (assuming they are not happy with what we currently have out there). I mean they talked big about Robert Johnson from his camp and preseason performance, but he's turning out to not be the answer when he's up against the real deal on Sundays.

Hey anyone know when we are gonna get something positive to talk about? Lol

Yeah, I'm for sitting Locker until he's healthy enough to go and not be too hampered by the injury. I know at this point in the season, no one is 100% so to expect Locker to become that would be unrealistic. But we aren't going anywhere this season regardless of who's at QB (I'm guessing we finish no better than 5-11, and that's just because we play J'Ville twice), and Locker needs to get experience. Fortunately, aside from the Texans, we don't face any world beating defenses from here on out. Hopefully Locker can play well enough to garner some hype for us heading into the offseason.

I'm not too worried about the coaching staff. The NFL is a talent driven league. If you don't have the horses, then you'll struggle no matter who you have coaching. At this moment, I don't think we have the horses on defense. McCourty has been inconsistent. ATV is struggling to be physical. Our safeties are horrendous at times, and average at their best. Ayers is and has been a stud, and Zach Brown has flashed with great explosiveness and power, but McCarthy has been injured and it's obviously still affecting him. The DT's are solid but not good enough to make the players around them better, and the DE's lack talent and most importantly depth. Ball, Douzable, and Dawson may not be world beaters, but our depth at DE got shattered when the three of them went on IR. Solomon and Egboh shouldn't even be roster players, and they're our #3 and #4 DE's. Honestly, we probably should have played Taylor Thompson at DE, moved Klug to LE on running downs, and played Ayers on the line on passing downs. I'm not sure why we didn't, and Wimbley and Morgan aren't good enough to compensate being on the field 90% of the time. They'd undoubtedly be more effective if they could be kept fresh, but unfortunately, we can't afford the drop-off in talent by taking them off the field.

Also, am I the only one confused as hell as to why we rotate DB's like most teams rotate DL's? I mean I see Mouton, Sensabaugh, Robert Johnson, and Al Afalava out there throughout the game, and during key situations. Either Jerry Gray, a former DB player and DB coach, is ahead of his time due to his experience with the position and thinks fresh DB's will help counteract the passing offenses in this league, or he genuinely thinks Al ******* Afalava is worth playing in the 4th QTR of a tight game.

It's really hard to get a read on Chris Palmer. We need to remember that he doesn't have his starting QB, and while Hass is a great backup, Locker was made the starter for a reason. I like his offense, but it's like the NY Giants' offense. When it's clicking, it's almost impossible to stop. But when it's not, it's prone to turning the ball over. The WR's run option routes, which means the WR can alter his route based on the coverage he reads from the defense. If the WR is a good route-runner, like Britt and Wright, and can read the coverages well, and the QB is on the same page, then I'm not sure there's a better offensive scheme in the NFL. But perhaps that's not what's best for Locker, who had questions about accuracy and decision making coming out.

Also, Palmer is noted for being a QB guru. I'd like to keep him around to coach up Locker, unless we can land Norv Turner as an OC. That'd be amazing.

I do think Palmer should be praised for CJ's improvement, and Munch and Bruce Matthews as well since the OL seems to have improved it's run-blocking (Perhaps Amano really was that big of a liability?). CJ's 6th in the NFL in rushing yards after his horrendous start, and is averaging 5 YPC. 691 yards over the last 6 games (which, oddly enough, is the time Locker has missed, so make of that what you will *shrug*). I think it's a positive reflection of a coaching staff.

Personally, I'd prefer to keep Munchak and Palmer. As of now, the defense is on pace to set the NFL record for most points given up in a season. 533 points is the record, and we've given up 308 through nine games. It's hard to survive a historic disaster such as that. I think if a guy like Ron Rivera is fired in Carolina or Jim Schwartz is fired in Detroit (although I think Detroit would be stupid to do so), then Munch should pounce on a guy like that. Like I said, it's hard to put it all on Gray, but if an obvious upgrade is out there, then you're obligated to pursue it when the current option hasn't produced towards expectations.

As for Bud speaking out, I can't hardly blame him. We didn't just get beat by the Bears. We got embarrassed and shamed by them on our homefield. Their defense and special teams got hyped up and slurped all pre-game, and what did we have to say about that? We added to their DEF TD total, turned the ball over 5 times by letting Peanut Tillman repeatedly tomahawk the ball loose, and allowed a jailbreak punt block for a TD. These things are mostly execution, but you almost have to consciously try to be atrocious in order to put on a display of ineptitude such as that. The coaching staff has to be telling everyone on offense that Tillman and the defense will be trying to rip the ball loose, and yet, Britt, CJ (x2), and Cook, the team's cream of the crop, all got stripped by Tillman. We probably single-handedly awarded Tillman a Pro Bowl bid. Double-hand the ball or get to the ground - that's what the coaches needed to have been drilling into their minds once we fumbled twice. Then CJ fumbled again and Cook did so after not holding the ball secure enough. The coaching staff deserves to be called out. I think the fact that we're all talking about what will happen to the coaching staff this offseason is proof of that.

Although, Adams isn't innocent. The coaches and FO wanted to go after Mario Williams and a vet center in FA, but were hindered in doing so because Adams was demanding for them to sign Peyton Manning at all costs. I'm not sure that had much of an affect on Mario Williams, since he never left Buffalo (and frankly, I didn't think he deserved what he got), but it probably did in signing a center since Scott Wells went to St. Louis and the Texans C re-signed. So while it's hard to argue that adding Scott Wells would have made this season into something significant, I think it's easily argued that Scott Wells would have improved this team and by Bud Adams forcing the issue with Manning, he essentially prevented the team from getting better. He should hold himself accountable as well.

Yeah the rotating DB's is one thing I think may be hurting us. Seems players usually need a rhythm, but we throw all kinds a DB's out there. Otoh, we keep Martin's snaps down, yet he's arguably been the best looking Dlineman. The D is horrible, and things like this make me question how much of the problem is coaching. I do agree Hope that usually the players are the ones winning the game, rarely do you find great coaching mostly responsible for winning it. But how much does below average coaching keep you down?

Glad to see Jake back. It's mostly a wasted season, but Jake can still develop.

They say they are going to get Ayers more involved with pass rush and continue to let Brown play a nickle LB spot. Sounds good. Also read they are trying different things to get McCarthy healthy. That sounds kinda bad just knowing he is still dealing with the ankle sprain. But I hope he can get close to 100% cause I wanna see what this D looks like with those 3 guys doing their thing at full speed.

I want to think we have 3 long term LB's. And I know I'm looking way too far into the future here, but I wonder what value they'd put on these guys when their contracts are up? I know the front office is not the same as what we had in the past, but we typically haven't valued LB that much.

- Great first game back for Locker. Love our offense with him at the helm.
- CJ2K has earned his nickname back. Glad he proved me correct in still believing in him.
- Defensive front finally got consistent pressure it seemed.
- I'm really happy we have a great group of young starting linebackers to build around. They all made plays today.
- Our corners had a very good game. I was extremely happy to finally see Sensabaugh in over Mouton. Hopefully the Mouton experiment is forever unfunded.
- Rob Bironas is still money.